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Mr Tilley led a team of volunteers to improve the first ‘pocket park’ over one of the Barnaby weekends with the Silk Road as an inspiration for planting.

He told the Express the first garden was a long time coming and they hope to take on other plots in the future.

Mr Tilley said: “We first had the idea about four or five years ago. We had this idea of putting a series of gardens across the town. The first was to be an oriental style garden because of the history of silk.

“And we found a shady spot outside the bus station.”

Jon Tilley (pictured) led the project to transform the stretch of raised beds outside Macclesfield Bus Station

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He added: “One of my targets for the future is Churchill Way car park. It is just an acre of grounds and not one single tree on it, it’s terrible.”

Mr Tilley said as well as brightening up the town, these gardens are important for health and wellbeing. He added: “Firstly there is the environmental factor and then mental wellbeing - it is far better if you have things that are green to look at.

“We have some really great parks, we really do, but the town centre could do with more plants I think.”

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Pete Turner, the Town Clerk of Macclesfield, has thanked the volunteers for their hard work and is excited for future plans.

He said: “I can’t thank Jon and his fellow volunteers enough. They took the idea and built on it to give it a theme and have created a really lovely planting scheme in the centre of town. They are hoping to do some more sites in the town, but are also looking for more ‘greening volunteers’ to join the team.

“The town council funds the plants and materials, but we couldn’t do it without the commitment of the volunteers.

“I am really looking forward to see what other projects the Garden Festival team are bringing forward.”